The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Trump Receives Target Letter from Special Counsel, U.S. Soldier Detained in North Korea, Jordan Threatens to Hold Wray In Contempt of Congress | July 18

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: President Donald Trump announced on TruthSocial he has received a target letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith.  The former president’s lawyers appeared before a court today for the classified documents case.  Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance has unveiled legislation aimed at banning gender reassignment surgeries for minors,according to exclusive reporting from The Daily Caller.  A U.S. soldier has been detained in North Korea after he crossed the Military Demarcation line that separates North Korea from South Korea.  Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan has threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. I'm Samantha Sherris and I'm Virginia Allen and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Tuesday, July 18th. Here are today's headlines. President Donald Trump announced on truth social he has received a target letter from special counsel Jack Smith. Trump said deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden's DOJ, sent a letter. Again, it was Sunday night, stating that I am a target of the January 6th, grand jury investigation and giving me a very short four days to report to the grand jury,

which almost always means an arrest and indictment. The former president also said, nothing like this has ever happened in our country before or even close. CBS News reports that Smith's office has been investigating a December 2020 Oval Office meeting, where the former president discussed bringing in attorney Sidney Powell a special counsel at the White House and seizing voting machines by an executive order. CBS News also reports that special counsel investigators are digging into whether Trump believed the fraudulent claims of election fraud raised at that meeting weeks ahead of January 6th,

even though White House lawyers told him in person that night and after the claims were not true. In another truth social post from this morning, Trump said, Which Hunt? Cricket Joe Biden and his injustice department want to indict. and arrest his presumed political opponent, me, who is leading him in the polls in the upcoming presidential election of 2024. We will keep you updated as the story develops. And in other Trump-related news today, the former president's lawyers appear before court today for the classified documents case. Roiders reported ahead of the appearance that our federal judge will begin considering how to hold a trial of Trump for his handling of classified documents

while also ensuring top secret information is not exposed. As we previously reported here on the show, Special Counsel Jack Smith made public a 37-count indictment against the former president. The counts include allegations of willful retention of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice,

one count of withholding a document or record, one count of corruptly concealing a document, one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation, one count of a scheme to conceal, and one count of false statements and representations. Trump's aide, Walt Nata, is named in five counts in the indictment. The former president took to True Social on Monday and said, if I'm being prosecuted over documents and I shouldn't be, in that I come a Under the Presidential Records Act, why is Joe Biden not being prosecuted? He was egregious.

Of course, we will keep you all posted as this situation develops. Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance has unveiled legislation aimed at banning gender reassignment surgeries for minors. That's according to exclusive reporting from the Daily Caller. The bill, known as the Protect Children's Innocence Act, aims to prohibit gender-affirming care on minors and for other purposes. Vance told the daily caller ahead of introducing the legislation, under no circumstances should doctors be allowed to perform these gruesome, irreversible operations on underage children. With this legislation, we have an opportunity to save countless young Americans from a lifetime of suffering and regret. Vance added, I want to thank Congresswoman

Marjorie Taylor Green for leading on this issue, and I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues to protect children from these life-altering procedures. A U.S. soldier has been detained in North Korea after he crossed the military demarcation line that separates North Korea from South Korea. United Nations Command tweeted about the situation, saying a U.S. National on a joint security area orientation tour crossed without authorization,

the military demarcation line into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. We believe he is currently in Democratic People's Republic of Korea custody and are working with our Korean people's army counterparts to resolve this incident. Fox News reports a senior U.S. defense official identified the soldier as private second class Travis King. King was to be separated from the military for cause and was supposed to go back to the U.S. according to the official. But he missed his flight. King had been punished for conduct while serving in South Korea and was being sent home to the U.S., according to the Washington Post. So this is a story so many are watching in the news, and we will certainly be bringing you all developments right here on the Daily Signal podcast. And for our final story of today's show, Ohio Republican rep Jim Jordan, has threatened to hold FBI director Christopher Ray in contempt of Congress.

Jordan wrote in a July 17th letter to Ray that on February 3, 2023, the committee issued a subpoena to you for documents and information regarding the FBI's targeting of concerned parents who speak out at school board meetings. Similarly, on April 10, 2023, the committee issued a subpoena to you for documents and information related to the FBI's profiling of traditional Catholics as domestic extremists. Jordan continued, to date, the FBI's compliance with the subpoenas has been wholly inadequate and has materially impeded the committee's oversight efforts. After several accommodations, months of persistent outreach by the committee, and attempts to negotiate and work with the FBI in good faith, we write to notify you that if the FBI does not improve its compliance substantially, the committee will take action, such as the initiation of contempt of Congress proceedings, to obtain compliance with.

with these subpoenas. We will include a link to Jordan's full letter in today's show notes. And that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signals Top News. If you haven't had the chance, be sure to check out our morning show. It's right here in this same podcast feed. And every weekday morning, we bring you interviews with lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. Join us tomorrow morning for the Daily Signals interview edition. I'll be sitting down with Will Hild. He's the executive director of Consumers research and we'll be discussing environmental, social, and governance, or ESG policies, his thoughts on recent congressional hearings about the topic and anti-ESG legislation at the state level.

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